The culmination of Frances Benjamin Johnston’s work as an architectural photographer is the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, a systematic record of the early buildings and gardens of nine southern states that was executed between 1933 and 1940 with the financial assistance of thc Carnegie Corporation. Miss Johnston (1864-1952) worked chiefly in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana and to a lesser degree in Florida. She was one of the first to document vernacular building traditions, photographing not only the great mansions of the South, but churches, graveyards, row houses, offices, kitchens, warehouses, mills, shops, farm buildings, and inns. The survey includes records of severely altered and poorly maintained structures and numerous shots of interiors, furnishings, and architectural details. Photo First African Baptist Church, Franklin Square, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia 1939. Reprint is 17 in. x 20 in. on archival quality photo paper.

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. In The Black Church in the African American Experience, based on a ten-year study, is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and the first major field study on the subject since the 1930s.Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black Church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary black culture. In examining both the internal structure of the Church and the reactions of the Church to external, societal changes, the authors provide important insights into the Church’s relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music.Among other topics, Lincoln and Mamiya discuss the attitude of the clergy toward women pastors, the reaction of the Church to the civil rights movement, the attempts of the Church to involve young people, the impact of the black consciousness movement and Black Liberation Theology and clergy, and trends that will define the Black Church well into the next century.This study is complete with a comprehensive bibliography of literature on the black experience in religion. Funding for the ten-year survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.

With an introductory essay by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, Covenant is, in the words of photographer Tyagan Miller, “a record of things seen and heard in uncommon circumstances, the view of life that underlies it, reflect[ing] the mutual aspiration of human beings everywhere.”

Culled from more than 4,000 images taken by Miller over a four-year period, the 93 photographs record the salient aspects of the life of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on Indianapolis’s near west side — services, baptisms, weddings, funerals, social events, and portraits of the congregants. In accompanying interviews, congregants share their stories of miracles, seeing angels, losing a child, racism and brotherly love, and being young, black, and poor.

The esteemed African American Episcopal Historical Collection was formally dedicated on Thursday, February 24, 2005, in a ceremony at Virginia Theological Seminary. The Very Rev. Martha J. Horne, dean and president of Virginia Seminary, and Dr. Thaddeus W. Tate, Jr., president of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, opened the Dedication by welcoming guests who had traveled from places as far away as Chicago to participate in the days events.

The keynote speaker for the Dedication was the Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson Jr., Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, who wove the history of the Black Episcopalian into his own story, addressing the pointed question that former Black Panther leader, Malcolm X, once asked of him, ÂWhat is a black man doing in the Episcopal Church?Â In a response that took Thompson years to formulate, he told the audience, ÂI find myself telling Malcolm X that the experience of Moses and the burning bush with God was an African experienceÂ that the typical Anglican is a 35-year-old black woman in KenyaÂ and, by the way, have you heard of a man named Desmond Tutu, a black Anglican like me, who helped liberate the largest country in southern Africa?Â

Preaching at an evening service in the Seminary Chapel in thanksgiving for the ministry of African American Episcopalians, was the Rev. Canon Angela Ifill (VTS Â95), Missioner for Black Ministries for the national Episcopal Church.

The Dedication marked one of the many ways in which Virginia Seminary continues to foster increased understanding of issues related to race and ethnicity and the elimination of the plague of racism.

The African American Episcopal Historical Collection (AAEHC) is a cooperative effort of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and the Bishop Payne Library of the Virginia Theological Seminary. The AAEHC solicits, preserves, and makes available for research and public education unique documentary evidence of the African American experience in the Episcopal Church of the United States and its colonial antecedents.

Virginia Theological Seminary, which is the second oldest and the largest of the 11 Episcopal seminaries in the United States, has had a long standing interest in ministry by and among African Americans. From 1878-1949 the Bishop Payne Divinity School, in Petersburg, Virginia was the primary institution for the education of African American candidates for the Episcopal ministry. Bishop Payne Divinity School merged with Virginia Theological Seminary in 1953. The seminaryÂs library was later named in honor and in memory of the former divinity school.

More information about the collection, along with an 87-page research guide entitled, Prominent African American Episcopalians and Their Experiences in the Episcopal Church, 1746 Â 2003: A Guide to African American Historical Resources in the Bishop Payne Library, Virginia Theological Seminary, can be found on the SeminaryÂs web site at www.vts.edu.

Author, Vivian Hunter-Hindrew claims in her well researched, ground breaking new book, ” The Sibyls: The First Prophetess’ of Mami (Wata)”, that for 6,000 years, Africa was ruled by a powerful order of matriarchs known throughout the ancient world as “Sibyls.” Hindrew contends that the Sibyls produced the world’s first prophetic oracles, prophetess’ and prophets.

Believed to be the actual priestesses of Isis,’ Hunter-Hindrew asserts that the Sibyls were known as “Pythoness,” because their oracle source was a mighty ancestral python that “spoke” prophecy to them during trance possession. “It was the Sibyls who built and worked the powerful oracles in the African Egyptian colonies of ancient Greece, Rome, Turkey, Israel, Syria and Babylon.”

The most famous of these temples was the (later renamed) “Temple of Amon” in ancient Libya, and the “Temple of Delphi” (meaning “dolphin”) at Dodona and Delos, in the Grecian islands. However, their holy temples were more numerous than the Christians churches of today. According to Hunter-Hindrew, “many of the first Christian churches were created by either assimilating, or were built atop the temple ruins of the Sibyls.” She further contend that in ancient Rome, the Sibyls were the first to establish the “holy seat” of the Vatican. They were celebrated and respected as advisors to the world’s heads of state. “The Romans even credit a famous Sybil named “Cimeria” with prophesying the birth of Julius Caesar and his nephew Augustus.”

The famous Roman augur/diviner Navius, speaks about Cimeria in his book on the Punic Wars. Known as great healers. Hunter-Hindrew claims that “centuries before Christ, the Sibyls cured epileptics, the blind, lepers and ‘casted out demons,’and even called-up the dead.” It was a Sibyl, who called-up the spirit of the Apostle Samuel to speak to him from the dead.

Hunter-Hindrew claims that during the inquisitions, the Sibyls were eventually persecuted by the now established Roman Church, and condemned as “witches.” However, their “pagan” prophecies were later collected by the Roman Emperor, Tarquin and compiled into numerous books. The Sibyls preserved their history in poetic and prophetic prose that would later be used as the basis for Greek and Roman tragedies. Hunter-Hindrew believes that it was these books that were eventually seized by the emerging Roman papal to create a western theological foundation in order to compete with the Kemetically learned levitical Jews. Hunter-Hindrew concludes that the Sibyl prophecies would later lay the ecclesiastical foundation for the collection of apocryphal books modified as the “Christian” Bible. She believes also that “the New Testament is actually a historical chronicle of the final destruction of these ancient Sibyl temples, and the forced imposition of a “new theology” revised by church officials from the more ancient books of the Sibyls and others.”

About author:

Vivian Hunter-Hindrew, M.Ed., (aka: Mama Zogbé) is a world traveled priestess of the Mami Wata traditions that originate in West Africa. She is the first initiated priestess of this tradition in America. She is the author of a comprehensive body of work entitled “Mami Wata: Africa’s Ancient God/dess Unveiled Vol I & II, and “Vodoun: The History of A Suppressed Tradition in America.” She works and maintains full-time her ancestral shrines dedicated to this African deity.

About MWHS:

Founded in 1999 The Mami Wata Healers Society is a 5012(3), non-profit religious organization committed to educating the public about the ancestral religions of West Africa.

Pat Johnson, Executive Director of The Museum of the African Diaspora announced the launch of the ultimate travel series for the discriminating traveler. The first tour in the series is a fifteen day adventure in historic Ethiopia. “Please join the MoAD Group for a journey into the past as we also gain a first hand look at the new Ethiopia. As the location for early civilizations and a focal point for religious and cultural developments on the African continent, Ethiopia promises to awaken and enlighten all who cross its vast terrain.” said Pat Johnson. “You will have the travel experience of a lifetime.” She added.

The 15-day itinerary (January 15-29) begins in Addis Ababa, continues to Axum, Lalibela, Bahir Dar, Gondar and back to Addis. Travelers will depart from San Francisco to Addis Ababa, a city that is very young when compared to a country, which dates back more than 3000 years. Founded in 1886, Addis is located at the foot of the highest part of Ethiopia. Highlights in Addis Ababa include the spectacular views from Mount Entoto, the National Museum (which houses the 3.5 million year old skeleton of “Lucy”), the Ethnographic Museum inside University Campus, which houses an extraordinary collection of the priceless and varied ethnic collection, Trinity Church and the Mercato, one of the largest open air markets in Africa.

Travelers will attend the Trinket evening ceremony. Celebrated in Orthodox Christian strongholds this colorful three-day festival celebrates Epiphany and is marked by the procession of the tabots (a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, the original is said to be in the chapel of Axum.)

Other stops on the tour include a boat trip on Lake Tana, the Blue Nile River, a baptism ceremony at the Tabot Madieria, Simon Mountain National Park (Mountains of the Gods) and Lalibela known for its monolithic rock-hewn churches and designated by UNESCO as the “Eight Wonder of the World.”

The cost is 99 per person from San Francisco and includes accommodations in five star deluxe hotels, three meals daily including a special Farewell Dinner, private motor coaches and services of English speaking guides and entrance

fees.

The Museum of the African Diaspora, or “MoAD,” will be located in the first three floors of a new 0 million St. Regis Hotel in downtown San Francisco, near the cityÂs Museum of Modern Art and the Moscone Convention Center. In planning for more than a decade, MoAD will be dedicated to the art, culture, history and literature emanating from the African cradle of humanity that makes all humankind part of the African “Diaspora,” the dispersion of a people from their homeland.

For a complete itinerary logon to www.moadsf.org or call 415.358.7200.